The Legacy of the Shadowwalkers
by Dreadman75xSnipa
Summary: Prologue arc! This is a redo of the old version that has been deleted. Full summary, and eventually explanations, on profile page. Dual project by Snipa and Dreadman75. Beta: KokiriLink.
1. Chapter 1

Dreadman75: Ladies and Gentlemen, after much deliberation (and a couple of concussions) me and my partner in crime Snipa have decided to rewrite the entire prologue to _The Legacy of the Shadow Walkers_. Our goal this time 'round is to help make it more interesting to read, while correcting some of the atrocious continuity errors present in the first version. Snipa do you have anything to add?

Snipa: Meh, not much. Just enjoy and tell us how we did.

Dreadman75: And with that we hope you will enjoy this rewritten prologue.

Dreadman75 & Snipa: We own no part of any anime, book, game, or anything else that may appear in this fic now or any later chapter.

Chapter 1

… "**Gasp! Huff huff.**"

A young boy, no more than seven years old, woke with a start and suddenly sat straight up from the bed he had been sleeping in. _'Where am I?'_ he thought. Looking around he saw he was in a room where Grey seemed to be the theme. Grey metal was what made up both the floor and the walls. There was a white curtain to his left obscuring his view of most of the room. He was lying in a bed positioned near the corner of the room, covered in white sheets. In his left arm was a tube connected to a bag on a stand, the bag was filled with a clear liquid being fed into the tube and into his body. Turning his head to the right he saw some sort of machine in the corner next to the bed, it had a rectangular glass face that flashed different colors and had buttons beneath it that had characters depicted on them.

While staring in fascination at the device the boy became vaguely aware of something soft and restricting covering his face. He lifted his hands up and felt around, and discovered that his entire head was wrapped up in a cloth of some sort. _'Where did this come from? Did I get hurt?' _The closed his eyes and tried to recall why he was lying in bed in some strange place. He opened his eyes and they adopted a somber look,_ 'Why can't I remember anything?' _he thought to himself. He closed his eyes again and once more tried to recall any memories from before waking up in this strange room. After a few moments he reopened them again with a sigh, _'It's no use, I can't remember anything at all. How did I get here? WHERE is here? Who brought me here?' _His thoughts continued along that path for about five minutes before laid back down and stared at the ceiling. His last thought was, _'Who am I?'_

**Whirrrrr...**

He jerked up at the noise. It sounded like something had opened, he was soon proven right when something _floated_, literally _floated, _around the curtain and faced him. His eyes widened as he looked at this new arrival in his room. It was another type of machine like the one next to his bed. The differences between the two, however, were immediately obvious. This machine had a vaguely teardrop shaped body made up of what looked like metal fins with gaps between them, allowing you to see some of the machine's insides. It had a single blue "eye" that was fixated intently upon him, it's unblinking stare making the boy uncomfortable, this feeling was intensified a moment later when the eye began to glow. Suddenly there was a flash, the boy flinched and closed his eyes while holding his arms up to try and shield his head from whatever was was happening.

A minute went by and after feeling no pain the boy opened his eyes. The machine's eye had a blue beam emanating from it, he looked at his skin to find that instead of an attack a horizontal line of light was moving up and down from his lower torso to his head. After a few times back and forth the beam went back into the eye and the machine turned away and began floating back out the door.

"Hey wait!" the boy said after the machine.

The machine, paying him no mind, continued around the curtain and out where it came in from. Another whir later and the boy was all alone once more.

The boy could only sit there and wonder what had just happened. After a few minutes of staring at nothing in particular the boy had a thought, _'I need to know where I am, and maybe that thing can tell me what happened...' _he looked at the tube in his arm as he was thinking _'...this thing needs to come out first.' _He grabbed the end of the needle stuck in his arm and began to slowly pull it out. He winced as pain equal to that of a pinch came on as a result. A few seconds later however the needle was out and hanging off the bed spewing the clear liquid all over the floor.

The boy slowly pushed himself off the bed and put his feet on the floor. Carefully standing up, the boy took a few steps, satisfied that he was barely wobbling he walked around the curtain and through the door on the other side.

When the boy exited the door, he was stopped by a wall right in front of him. He looked to his left and right and saw that this was actually a long hallway; the ends of which could not be seen. Several black doors and whole in the walls signifying other hallways lined the walls of this hallway. Careful as to not attract too much attention, he quietly moved to his right. After a few yards he came to a door on his left. He felt the knob and saw that is wasn't locked. He carefully opened the door, and it didn't squeak at all.

He peeked inside, and gasped. Inside the room were several of the floating machines he saw earlier. They were all either offline and in special holding containers, or doing something to the offline bots. Nearby, a computer screen was filing away large amounts of data as it flew across the screen. The words were flying by so fast that it made the kid a little dizzy. He carefully backed out of the room, and closed the door. He continued down the hallway.

In many of the rooms, there was what looked like medical equipment, more machine stations, laboratories filled with strange chemicals. One of the rooms made the kid stop though.

It was a library. The kid was at the top of a flight of stairs that went down into the center of the room. The room was circular in design, and many many bookshelves lined the walls, and spiraled around the center of the room. In the center of the room, a desk with what looked like several books all over it's top. The kid looked around, and saw that no one was in the room. He quickly moved down the steps. _'If there is one thing I remember is that books are a great source of information. Maybe I can find out where I am.'_ He quickly moved to a random shelf near the center, and started to look at the titles. But his hopes were dashed, as he couldn't read the titles of the books. _'They must be in a different language.'_ He wandered around the room hoping to find something in his language. On the outer edge of the room, he finally found a shelf with books that he could read. _'Let's see, science? No. I need something about history.'_ He thought. He kept looking, and even brought a ladder to climb up and see if he could find something. Alas, the entire section was dedicated to science and mathematical theories. He climbed down the ladder, and put it back. He walked back to the door, and exited the library.

As he walked down the hallway, a machine that was different then the ones from before flew right by him. It had a saucer like design with four metal arms coming out of the bottom of it. It seemed weird that it was slightly different then the rest of them.

After a while of searching more rooms, he came to another door. This one was different. Instead of a solid black color like all the rest, this one was solid red, and had waves of green coming from around the edges. As he inspected it, he saw that the green stuff was actually vines. He tested the knob, and found that it was open.

He opened it, and gasped once more. Inside of the 'room' was an entire forest. He could hear birds sing, and strange from animals coming from from the strange foliage. He stepped inside, and the door shut behind him. He quickly turned around to look at the door. That's when a confused look dominated his eyes. He looked all over it, and grew even more confused. The door resembled a seven foot high cinder block that was only two inches wide. The door was literally standing in the middle of a clearing in the forest. There was nothing behind it whatsoever. The kid opened the door again, and saw that it was the same hallway he was in earlier.

The kid tilted his head to the side trying to figure it out, but it only hurt his brain. He decided to go back into the hallway, as he had no clue what was in the forest, and didn't want to get lost. He was searching for answers, not adventure.

He continued down the hallway, searching for more clues as to where he was. His current trip led him to a turn of the hallway, and a solid black door. He opened the door to see that it had a wooden desk, and paper's on the desk. A solid black symbols that looked like IV was on it. He somehow knew that meant 4. He silently, backed out, seeing that no one was here.

As he closed the door, he turned to continue down the hallway, only to run into a black obstruction. The kid fell on his ass, and winced in pain. He looked up to see that it was a human figure standing over him dressed in all black. The figure was wearing a loose black shirt that was tight around the wrists and waist, with black leather gloves travelling halfway up the forearm. The pants were also loose, with black leather boots for feet. The figure showed that it was clearly a woman. The woman wore a hood, and despite his angle he couldn't see her face at all. The woman stood at around five feet nine inches.

On the woman's chest there was the single symbol of a Roman Numeral I. Around her waist was a thick belt that looked to be made of cloth, and on it was a emblem-like design with the design of a black bird on it. It had characters under it that the boy couldn't read, but somehow he understood anyways. It said "Guardians". The boy stared at it trying to figure out why he could read it even though it wasn't in his language. _'What is my language, anyways?'_ He was broken from his concentration when the figure moved, and helped the boy stand up.

The figure chuckled. "Well, well. Looks like the Sleeping Beauty woke up." The voice had a soft feminine tone.

"Wh-who are you?" The boy tilted his head to the side trying to figure out how to see the woman's face.

"My name is Fay Aleara." She bent down to make herself look less intimidating. The boy could see a glint coming from where the woman's eyes would be. "What's your name?"

The kid furrowed his brow. "I... I don't know."

The womanly figure went ridged for a second. "Do you remember anything before you woke up in the infirmary?"

The kid shook his head. "One of the first things I remember is a weird machine coming into my room, and shooting a blue line at me."

The woman sighed and shook her head, the hood shaking with it. "I guess that was to be expected." She sounded kind of sad, and tilted her head down. They stood like that in silence.

After a few minutes, the boy suddenly spoke up. "Um... where am I?"

The woman looked back up. "You are in the science and investigations department of the Castle Necrux."

The boy looked at her like she had two heads.

"Don't worry," The woman chuckled. "You'll get used to it here."

"So... what are you, and what do you do here?" The boy asked, determined to get SOMETHING useful out of her.

"I am a Guardian. To be specific, the leader of the Guardians, number 1." She said.

"What does a Guardian do?" He asked.

"We protect Existence from rouge gods." She said without missing a beat.

Now the boy was even more confused. "Existence? Rouge Gods? Am I in some bat-shit crazy story made by a couple weirdos, that's being pre-read by an equally weird teenager whose sanity is highly questionable?" (Both of the author's sneeze, while the beta smiles with insanity)

The woman chuckled. "No. This is reality. Sometimes a god will go rouge, and we must take them down, and restore balance."

"Balance?"

The woman sighed. "One question after another from you. You're just as bad as Herald." She said quietly. "I guess we should start from the beginning, and then work from there." She stood up. "Come on. Were going to go see a special someone here in the castle." She took the boy's hand, and walked down the hallway.

Clashing of metal could be heard from one of the doors they passed. The door was also ajar, so the boy could peak in.

Two men were fighting one another, they were wearing the same outfit as Fay was. Disappearing only to reappear a second later with two odd weapons clashing against one another. They pushed off, and stood at opposite ends of the room.

That was all the boy could see before he was pulled by Fay. As they walked away they could hear clashing of metal once more.

"Do you know why I can't remember anything?" The boy asked.

The woman didn't turn. "Those bandages on you are to help cover up some of the injuries you received before you lost consciousness. Though that was a good month ago, and most of it has healed now."

"So why does my head still hurt a little?" He asked.

She stopped and looked at him. "You went into a red door, didn't you?"

He nodded.

The woman chuckled. "Don't worry, I still get a headache from those as well." She turned, and started to half drag, half carry the kid once more.

After what seemed like miles and miles of miles of walking, turning, and moving in what seemed like circles for a while, they came up to a red door at the end of a long hallway.

The door had a panel to the right of it. On the panel were three devices: a screen, something that looked like a pair a goggles poking out of the wall, and a pad with a lot of buttons on it. Fay took her glove off to show creamy white skin, and put her hand on the screen. A green line dashed across the screen, and high pitched noise was heard. Then Fay put her head to the goggles, and a light flashed in it. Another high pitched noise was heard. Fay then put in a series of numbers, that the boy couldn't figure out which buttons she hit. Again, a high pitched noise was heard, and a clicking sound came from the door.

Fay went to the door, grabbed the handle on said door, and opened it. Inside was a large domed room. The high point of which the kid couldn't see. The kid could honestly think he could sprint all out, and then run out of energy long before he got to the other wall. In the center was a much smaller dome. It almost looked like an igloo. The door that was coming out of the small structure looked a lot like the door they just went through. They walked for what seemed like minutes to get to the igloo.

The woman let go of his hand, and said. "Stand here." He watched as the woman stood in a large red circle that was in front of the door. The panel to the right of the door only had one small hole in it. Fay put her finger into the hole, and a light shined out of it. When she pulled her hand back, there was a small drip of blood coming from her finger. The wound healed immediately, making her young charge blink a couple of times in surprise, she then brought out a small piece of black cloth from seemingly nowhere, took the blood off her finger, and made the cloth vanish again. She put her glove back on, and then motioned the boy to come over. The boy walked over just as Fay opened the red door.

They walked through a short hallway, and then the kid felt a wave of déjà vu. The inside of the igloo turned out to be just as large as the last room... or did they get smaller? He turned to look back into the other room to test his theory, but the red door was already closed.

In the center of the room was, once again, an igloo. And once again, a red door with a panel to the right of the door. This one had a white rimmed circle in front of the door. They approached the igloo figure once more after a long walk there.

"Stay here." She said again, and then walked into the circle.

"_Voice recognition required. Quis est vox?" _said a computer voice.

"**Scientia est vox,"** Fay responded.

"_Password confirmed. Please hold still for one moment." _it said.

A light glowed from beneath Fay. The light originated from below her and, like a scanner, traveled upwards vertically. When the light passed her head it disappeared, and the door clicked open.

"_Monomezurashii is currently sleeping, be careful." _said the computer somehow ominously, yet still monotone.

Fay nodded, and motioned for the boy to come over. When he got close, she bent over to look him in the eyes."Listen, kid. When I open this door, I want you to be absolutely silent until I call for you. Understood? Oh, and watch out for the toys and dangerous objects on the ground."

The kid nodded, feeling the tone said 'no joke' in it to get the tone across.

She stood back up, and turned the knob of the red door. When they walked in, the feeling of déjà vu passed through him once more, and they were, once again, in a room with an impossibly high dome for a ceiling. _'Does the room grow, or do we shrink?'_ he thought. The room was not the same as the last two. One, the kid could see the top of it, as large screens, tiled every single inch of the walls and dome, lit up the room. Each screen was showing a different image. Some showed people, while others showed places.

When the kid looked down, he could see what she meant by toys and dangerous objects. Littered on the ground were toys ranging from dolls, to complexly designed, machine-like play-things that shined. He also saw swords, both sheathed and unsheathed, lances, spears. As they were walking, Fay suddenly bent over. She picked up a strange device, and they continued to walk towards the center of the room.

When they first entered the domed room, the boy had seen a soft blue light, but he quickly disregarded it as he thought it was just another screen. As they approached the center of the room, the kid could see that it was actually a light floating in the center of the room. Once they got within 50 feet of the light, the kid could see that it was a small girl, curled up and sleeping in the center.

They stopped just outside of a grey circle the was on the floor, signifying that it was the center of the room. Fay put her hand on his shoulder, and made a stopping motion with her hand. It was a signal for him to stand there. She walked up to the floating blue girl, who was floating just three feet off the ground. Fay put her arms around the girl, and the girl automatically snuggled into the woman's chest.

The girl didn't look old. She looked to be around two years old, and small. The woman's arms were holding her gently.

Fay turned around, and walked slowly back to the boy. The girl looked much happier in her arms, than when she was by herself, if the thumb in her smiling mouth had any say in it. Fay stopped in front of the kid, and sat down gently as to not wake the sleeping girl. She motioned for the boy to sit next to her, and get comfortable.

After an hour of the woman gently rocking the girl in her arms, the girl stirred, and her eyes slowly opened up. The first thing the girl focused on was the woman's chest, and then she looked up into the hood. A large smile went across her face. "FAY-CHAN!" And somehow glomped the woman from the cradled position.

"Hey there, Monome-chan. How are you?" She hugged her.

"Happy now that you're here." She smiled, and backed up. She was floating above the ground. Now that she wasn't so jumbled, the kid could get a good look at her. She had long flowing puffy hair that was the length of her 3 foot long body. Her skin, hair, eyes, and clothes were all different shades of a glowing blue with her skin as the lightest of the blues, and her eyes as the darkest. She had on a small light blue dress that went down to her knees.

"Monome-chan, I have someone here that I'd like for you to look at, and then we're going to tell him the story of the Guardians." He could hear her voice smile at that.

"YAY!" He said happily, and then flew over to the boy. She got up close and personal, almost kissing him, or would have been if he didn't have the bandages wrapped around his face, and inspected him with a serious, but comical look on her face. "Well this is strange." She said, as she poked his head. The kid quickly pushed her hand away.

"What do you mean?" Fay asked, nervousness in her voice.

"Usually, when you find potential Guardians, you usually find number 13, and then work your way up to number 1."

"Wait." The kid said, getting their attention. "What do you mean 'potential Guardians?'"

The girl giggled. "You silly, you were selected by the Guardians for potential apprenticeship and then eventual full fledged Guardianship."

"You mean, I'll go around and kill rouge gods to make sure balance is kept?" He asked.

"Yep, that's the gist of it." Monome said. "By the way, I didn't catch your name."

The boy looked down. "I can't remember anything about myself."

"Not even your name?" She asked.

He nodded.

"Okay, now that's just freaky." Monome said.

Fay spoke up. "Can you finish what you started saying before he interrupted you?"

"Oh yeah! This guy is your apprentice." She said pointing at her.

Fay's head jerked back in surprise. "You mean he's the next number 1?"

Monome nodded her head, looking very happy.

"Floating girls, Mysterious people in weird clothes, brain hurting red doors. Oh yeah... I have GOT to be in a story made by a couple of weirdos." The boy deadpanned, suddenly he was glomped by the girl.

"Don't get depressed." Monome said. "We'll get along juuust fine." She smiled.

For some reason, a shiver went up the boy's spine.

---end chapter---

Dreadman75: Aaaaaannnnnndd CUT! That's a wrap people, I want all of you to pack up this crap and get the props ready for chapter 2. We're going to hit this thing like a line drive and (hopefully) wrap up the prologue before March is done with.

… -silence-

Snipa: -**sweat drop-** WELL! What the hell are you all waiting for, MOVE IT!!

-employees scatter hoping to still have a job at the end of the day-

Dreadman75: So hard to find good help these days, eh Snipa?

Snipa: true... too true. Oh, and one last thing.

Snipa and Dreadman75: We'd like to thank our Beta, KokiriLink, for looking over this for us.

Snipa: He did an excellent job for us.

Dreadman75: That he did. That he did... Speaking of which, do you hear insane laughing?

Snipa: -Snipa's eyes widened- No... I refuse to acknowledge that ominous sound of dark, insane laughing. I refuse to acknowledge that ominous sound of dark, insane laughing. KikiriLink! STFU, I'm trying to ignore your maniacal laughter!

KokiriLink: Oops, sorry!

All three at the same time: Please review and tell us how we did.


	2. Chapter 2

Dreadman75: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Allow me to cordially welcome you to the unveiling of chapter 2 of the prologue for The Legacy of the Shadow Walkers.

Snipa: If you recall, last chapter found us following a boy no older than 7 who woke up in a strange new place with no memory of who he is or even what his name is. He is apparently under the care of a group called the 'Guardians'. Who are the mysterious people? Who is this boy? Why am I asking you all these questions, just read and (hopefully) your questions will be answered.

Dreadman75: LET'S ROCK!

Prologue chapter 2

After Fay finally pried Monome off the poor boy, they all sat down on a couple of chairs that appeared from thin air

As Fay sat down she lifted a hand up to her hood and tugged it off. Underneath the hood was a woman with shoulder length dark brown hair with kind brown eyes that, if you stared long enough into, you would see the glint of a trained killer.

"So where exactly do you want to start?" Fay asked the young boy.

"Let's start at the beginning. What are the Guardians?" he responded.

Fay started to answer but stopped as Monome began bouncing up and down in her chair. "Oh! Oh! Let me answer Fay-chan, pretty please." She finished with the deadliest of all moves: The puppy dog eyes.

"Alright, Monome-chan, you can answer." Fay said with a chuckle.

"Yay! Okay now, to answer your question we're going to need a little history lesson." Monome said while pulling a pointer out of nowhere. A wave of her free hand made a large multicolored globe came flying from one of the piles of random objects scattered all over her 'room'.

The globe itself was blue around the body, with a circular portion on top being white, and a circular portion on the bottom being red. "This is what we know as a 'universe'. It is divided up into four portions." Another wave and the blue body of the globe was separated from the rest leaving a vaguely hourglass shape behind, the white portion becoming a cone with it's point facing down, and the red portion became a cone with it's point facing up. The boy noted that there was a smaller grey sphere keeping the white and red cone's apexes from touching each other.

She pointed first at the large blue portion, "This is the part of the universe is called the 'Living World'. It is where all that has life is located. You, along with all other guardians were born in this portion." The boy nodded and she continued "This," she said pointing at the white cone, "is Heaven. Where all the good people's souls go when they die. This is typically where the gods are located." Another nod and she pointed at the red portion, "If the other was Heaven, then this is it's exact opposite. This is Hell, the place where the evil souls go when their bodies die. Although in reality it acts more as a prison than a permanent residence; once evil souls have served their time they go up to heaven. This would be where the devils and demons live. Any questions so far?" She asked.

The boy raised his hand and asked "What do you mean by 'prison'? I thought that if you went to 'that place' you never came out."

Monome giggled, "That's a common misinterpretation. Actually, those sent to hell are only there until the devil feels they paid for their sins and sends them to heaven. Of course this means that some, if not most, of the people sent down there will stay there for eternity."

"Oh, okay then..." the boy's voice trailed off.

"Good, now then the last piece..." she pointed at the small gray ball, " is know as purgatory or limbo. It forms the barrier between the living world and death. It's where the recently deceased are guided to heaven or hell." Another nod from the boy.

"Okay! Now then when you combine these four parts..." she waved her hand and the portions of the ball reformed together, "...you get a universe. Now picture a whole bunch of these universes together..." the ball shrunk and a lot of other balls sharing the same coloration appeared and began molding together forming a bigger ball, when they were done in their place was the same ball from before, "...you get what we call 'reality'. Consider it a much bigger universe made of an _uncountable_ number of smaller universes." She paused and looked at the boy again, wanting to know if he understood.

The boy nodded.

"Good! This is where the history comes in so pay attention. The one who rules reality's portion of heaven is called the Creator. The Creator was the one who made things the way they are today, from the structure of the universes to how Heaven and Hell function together. When reality was just beginning the Creator realized that the gods placed in charge of each individual universe, although they were supposed to be perfect beings, could be corrupted. To that end the Creator created the Guardians. We are the Creators backup plan if a god ever goes against his or her side, good or evil. In order to preserve a delicate balance between good and evil itself the Guardians are tasked with eliminating rouge gods." she explained.

"Wait! How is that possible?! How do you kill a god, they're supposed to be the most powerful beings in existence!" Exclaimed the boy.

Monome only smiled and explained. "The Creator blessed the original 13 guardians with the power to kill gods. However, it only works if all 13 guardians fight together if they don't fight together then killing a god is impossible. They are the only beings, except for the gods themselves, that can kill gods. As for how it's done...well that's a little complicated so we'll have to talk about it when your older and can understand it a bit better." The boy grumbled a bit and sat back in the chair.

"I believe that answers your first question as to who we are. What would you like to know now?" Fay inquired.

"Alright, here's one. What part do you play in all of this?" The boy asked while pointing at Monome.

This time it was Fay who answered him, much to Monome's annoyance. "That is really quite simple. When she said that the Guardians were blessed with the power to kill gods she was talking about herself."

The boy tilted his head to the side in a way that said he was confused so Fay elaborated. "If you get technical about it, Monome could be called the Creator's daughter. The Guardians are linked to her in such a way that if she were to die, our entire organization would die. Our link to her gives us the ability to live as long as we do, she is our power source. She is also capable of incredible feats herself, and in all definitions of it, she is the god of this castle."

"Okay, and where in all of reality is this castle?" The boy asked.

"Easy!" Monome said, grabbing the spotlight once more. She waved her hand, and the orb that was still in the air split off into the two pieces. She took her pointer, and pointed at the grey orb. "This castle lies just outside the border between the living realm, and reality's purgatory."

"...Wha'?" Now that confused him.

"To put it bluntly, this castle is right on the barrier between life and death." She smiled.

The boy mulled all that he heard for a bit. "How big is this castle?" He asked after a while.

"Good question." Both Monome and Fay said combined.

The boy sweat dropped, "You really don't know?" He asked.

"Not exactly," Fay said rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment "We know that it is the size of a planet but we never bothered to find out it's exact size. In our lifetimes we only use so much of this place, the rest is just empty space."

The boy was struck speechless at the implications of that statement. He remained silent for a moment before speaking once again.

"And how long do guardians live?" He asked, trying to get a good figure.

"Exactly one-hundred thousand years." Monome said.

The boy got a confused look on his face. "Why so long?"

Fay gestured to the still split orb. "Because even with reality being infinitely big, the times that gods go rouge are few and far between, usually no more than a couple every hundred thousand years. A lot of time passes between moments like that. So much so that training a new generation of guardians before that time is a bad idea. Each generation needs to have battle experience with at least one rouge god in it's lifetime, if they didn't get that experience then they couldn't pass it on to their apprentices and they would suffer for it." She finalized. "As it stands now it's been over a thousand years since we last battled a god."

Now the kid had a new question, "What do you do with all that spare time?"

Without missing a beat, both said at the same time, "Screw with fate."

"…Huh?"

"You know what fate is right?" Fay asked him, to which he nodded.

"A unique perk about being a guardian is that fate's laws and rules don't apply to us, and wherever we show up fate's plans for that place are thrown out the window allowing us to shape events, people and places in a way fate did not intend or expect. We guardians only have one rule, and we've said it before, keep the balance. Other then that, we can pretty much do whatever we want." Fay explained. "Some my personal favorite pastimes include, pissing political officials off, messing with the bad people's head, oh the fun I have with that one, enjoying a day at the beach, pissing political officials off, beating people down who have a stick up their ass, pissing off political officials, enjoying a good ice cream dinner, training, pissing political officials off, having our way with a planet's economy, living the good life, making it so that we can win lotteries, pissing political officials off, and pretty much do whatever we want. The only thing we really can't do is go genocidal."

The boy sweat dropped again, "You said 'pissing political officials off' five times."

"You have no idea how much fun that can be when you're extremely bored." Fay answered with a bright smile.

"Riiiight." The kid said, deadpanning.

Monome got a thoughtful look on her face. "Oh! I knew we missed something in our history lesson!" She waved her hand, and the orb disappeared. In it's place was a man wearing brown robes, that despite looking cumbersome, were actually pretty easy to move in. The boy was used to seeing this, and he could describe it with ease. A wide strip of white cloth was running down his chest to his waist, and the same type of cloth running down his back to his feet. Around his waist was an overly decorated belt meant to keep the white cloth, and brown robe from moving around too much. On the chest, on the white cloth, and on the back same area was a symbol of a sun shining down onto the lands below, revealing a tree where the light shined.

_'Wait, I'm used to seeing?'_ The kid thought quizzically.

She pointed at the man. "This is the guardian's worst enemy. The Knights of Verum-i."

"The knights of vermi?" He asked.

"WRONG! It's the Knights of Verum-i!" Monome corrected. (pronunciation: vere-um-eye)

"Who are these people?" The kid asked.

Fay was noticeably tense as she began to speak, her lips were pursed and her eyes had the glint of anger in them. "The Knights, as we call them, are an organization of religious fanatics. They believe that their way of thinking and believing is right and any other way is blasphemy and needs to be destroyed."

"What do they believe?" the boy inquired further.

"They believe that we, the Guardians, are an abomination. They believe wholeheartedly that no being or group of beings is capable of killing gods except for other gods. Merely saying that we can do just that is enough to make them go into a rage. Their organization is unbelievably huge, hundreds of millions strong. They go from world to world, universe to universe recruiting, brainwashing and subjugating anyone who believes as they do." Her voice got lower as she approached the end of her statement.

Fay spoke up with increased volume, "They mostly just try for a numbers approach with few skilled fighters among them."

Monome continued after her. "They believe that by killing off the rouge gods, we are going against the Creator's will, and seek to put us down in any way that can. We've been at their throats and they at ours for so long. We don't even know where it began, all we know is that one of the first generations of the Guardians must have pissed off some religious heavyweight who decided to kill the heathens that spoke against god. They have been searching for our organization's base of operations ever since we first learned of their existence. Next to the Guardians, their organization is one of the oldest in existence."

"Um, why don't you just kill them off?" The boy questioned like it was an obvious course of action.

"We've tried...over and over again. But like I said, they are a huge organization: no matter how many we kill there are always more to take their place. If we knew where their Headquarters was located we could end this petty war between us in an instant, but as it stands we don't so we can't." Fay finished with a frown on her face.

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Monome jumped up and began floating in the air, while at the same time yelling "Enough of this moping. I hate this gloomy atmosphere. We need to stop focusing on this and move on."

Fay sighed. "Monome's right. Besides I'm sure you still have more questions don't you?" she said looking at the boy.

They boy in question shook his head, ridding himself of the thoughts he had of these knights. "You're right, I do. Earlier you mentioned 'rouge gods'; what are they exactly?"

Fay nodded her head, "Gods, whether they are good or evil, rule each and every universe that exists. Like I said before it doesn't happen often but there are some gods that grow...bored or dissatisfied, if you will, with the job they have and decide they want more. If this were to happen, the balance between good and evil would be thrown into chaos, therefore we get called in to take care of it. Basically, it doesn't matter is a god is good or evil, if they stop doing their job they die, simple as that." Fay gestured to Monome. "Now, I think that is enough questions for now. Monome-chan, if you would please?"

Monome nodded and closed her eyes.

A minute passed...

She reopened her eyes and the boy gasped "Your eyes..." Indeed her eyes had undergone a transformation, where before they were a calming light blue filled with joy and mirth they were now dark blue had taken a much more serious edge. She began floating towards him, her arm outstretched.

The boy's breath hitched as he tried to scramble out of the chair only to be held back by Fay.

He looked up at her "What's going on?!"

Fay smiled at him despite the panic "It's okay, there's no need to panic. Monome is just going to unlock your powers. Once your power is unlocked you will be able to start training as my apprentice. All you have to do is relax and let her work, and don't worry it doesn't hurt."

The boy took a few deep breaths and said, "O-Okay..."

As soon as he spoke those words the boy felt a pressure all around his head. Suddenly pictures and words began to flash across his vision...

Thirteen people in black cloaks all bearing the seal of the Guardians...

Two warring deities, one, a goddess of light, the other, a god of chaos...

Creatures steeped in their own misery led by a betrayer...

A man with platinum hair staring straight at him...

The tides of images continued assaulting his brain and finally ended with a last image...

A man, dressed in light combat armor, his face not shown, facing down a being filled with hatred; before he could get a better look at the two, however, black feathers began falling all around him and the scene faded, and his eyes began focusing back on the little blue girl in front of him.

But before the haze disappeared one final piece of information wormed it's way into his head, a poem...no, a mantra. It burned it's way into his memory.

He got up from the chair and walked forward, stopping about a foot or so from Monome. Then, as though it were planned, they both began reciting the exact same thing at the same time.

Monome spoke in a low, deeper tone, while the boy's voice remained unchanged, "F**r**o**m** t**h**e d**a**r**k**n**e**s**s**, w**e** p**r**o**t**e**c**t t**h**e **li**g**h**t. F**r**o**m** t**h**e l**i**g**h**t, w**e **p**r**o**t**e**c**t t**h**e d**a**r**k**n**e**s**s.** B**a**l**a**n**c**e i**s** e**v**e**r**y**t**h**i**n**g**, a**n**d a**n**y**t**h**i**n**g**. **W**i**t**h**o**u**t **b**a**l**a**n**c**e, **o**n**l**y c**h**a**o**s **e**x**i**s**t**s**.** O**u**r o**n**e **t**r**u**e **g**o**a**l**,** i**s** t**o** p**r**o**t**e**c**t **t**h**a**t **b**a**l**a**n**c**e** f**r**o**m** t**i**p**p**i**n**g **i**n **a**n**y** G**o**d**'s** o**r** D**e**v**i**l'**s** f**a**v**o**r**.**" She approached the boy at this point, and touched his forehead. The boy felt a tingling sensation throughout his body. "**A**n**g**e**ls** w**il**l fal**l**, a**nd** d**emo**ns w**i**ll **ris**e. W**e** w**al**k **in** t**h**e **sh**ad**o**ws **wh**ere the** li**ght a**n**d the d**arkn**ess m**u**st c**o-e**xist..."

The boy's feet left the ground as he was lifted into the air by an unseen force. He struggled against whatever was happening for the first few seconds, but gave in as a warm feeling spread across his body. He didn't know what the feeling was, but it felt good. The air around him began to move and swim in his clothes. An unseen force touched his heart, and it began to beat erratically. After a few minutes of this happening, his heart began to slow until he couldn't feel it anymore. He felt empty without his heart, and his body went cold. He closed his eyes to look for something warm, anything. He felt something warm in the back of his head, and immediately grasped it. As soon as he did the warmth began to spread throughout his body, and his body was gently put down onto the ground again. He opened his eyes, and his first reaction was that the world seemed sharper, clearer, and more defined then before. He looked at Fay and acted like he was really seeing her for the first time. The ground was littered in objects, but he could see and tell every single one of them apart.

He looked around for the girl, only to see that she had disappeared. "Where did she go?" He asked

Fay sighed. "She comes and goes as she pleases. She probably went to torture one of the other guardians."

Suddenly, several red lights began flashing along with a long high pitched siren. The screens tiled along the walls and ceiling all changed to a red alert signal.

Fay's eyes widened as she began fiddling with a device on her wrist. "Report! What the hell is going on?"

A beam of light erupted from the device and combined into a sphere in which a face appeared. "Jax! What's happening, are we under attack?"

The man named Jax answered, "No, nothing like that. It would appear that one of the animals in a high security pen managed to escape."

Fay sighed. "Which one?" her voice conveyed a sense of dread.

"A Wyrm," he said but was interrupted by a rumbling boom "... shit! It's released the entire pack, and they're spreading throughout the entire castle!"

"Crap." Fay summed up the situation. "Stay here kid. I'll be right back." With that she ran out side of the room faster than the kid could follow.

"Wait!" The kid called out. He ran after her, only to loose her when she closed the door to the room. The door reopened to show a long hallway. The kid was pushed into the hallway by an unseen force, and the door slammed shut behind him. He turned around, and reopened the black door only to see another one of those floating device stations. "Huh?" he closed the door. Right as he was about to turn around, he felt a hot rush of air go by his neck. He went rigid, and turned around slowly.

He found himself face to face with a giant lizard. Not a normal lizard though. It was slightly taller then him in it's forward position, and standing up straight on it's hind legs would be a monstrous nine feet tall, not that it could in the eight foot tall hallway. It's forelegs looked to have giant spikes coming out at an angle from the claw that was on the ground.

It's chest puffed up, and air rushed passed his face into it's mouth. The lizard's head drew itself back for a moment, and then brought it forward again, making a load roar in the process. The kid was thrown against the door from the sheer amount of force of air. The lizard brought it's hand up, and a claw glinted in the light.

The boy knew he was going to die. He brought his arms up, and closed his eyes for the inevitable death that would come. After a few seconds of nothing happening, he slowly peeked out of one of his eyes. He blinked it in disbelief and opened both of his eyes, blinking a few more times.

From the floor up, a long black object had come out of nowhere, and was stopping the creatures claw attack in mid-flight.

The creature grunted, and brought his arm back again. It pounded it's claws on both arms on the black object that was shielding the boy over and over again.

_'I can't stay like this. What if this thing breaks?'_ He thought. _'I need a way out of here!'_

Suddenly black substance shot up from around his feet, and engulfed him. He could see nothing. The next thing he saw was the back of the creature that was still pounding away at the black shield.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the boy took this chance, and ran down the hallway. The creature noticed something behind it, and quickly turned around to chase it's meal.

The boy turned his head to look behind him, only to see that the creature had caught up to him. Panic spread like wild fire in the boy's eyes. He closed them, and turned to increase his running speed even more, pushing himself beyond what he knew he could do.

Alas, it wasn't enough. A claw grabbed the cloth material on the back of his neck, and he choked on the whiplash backwards. He tumbled to the ground, and he quickly turned to sit on his butt. The creature slowly walked forward, and when it was almost on him, the boy, in a last ditch effort, put his hand out and yelled, "STAY BACK!"

As if an invisible force heeded his call, the creature suddenly was forced backwards several feet, it's claws leaving deep gouge marks on the floor.

The boy quickly got up, and started running again. The beast recovered and quickly gave chase.

_'I have to survive. I have to live.'_ He chanted in his head. He turned a corner, but was faced with a dead end. The boy turned around only to see that the creature was already blocking the way out.

The creature, lizard thing, approached the boy slowly. It anticipated this meal, and it was going to savor it. Just as the boy was flat against the wall, the creature lifted it's arms once more. The boy closed his eyes.

He heard a gushing sound, and he expected his body to have been destroyed now.

After a while of nothing happening, the boy peaked out of one of his eyes. He blinked it closed, and then opened both, not believing his luck. "W-what just happened?"

A woman was standing where the monster once was. She was dressed identical to Fay with the small exception of having an VIII symbol emblazoned on her chest. She cleaned her bloody katana with a white cloth, and then sheathed it. At the woman's feet were the tiny pieces of what the boy presumed to be the creature. The woman pushed her hand out to the floor, and the pieces and blood of the monster flared up in blue flames. After the flames died out, the woman lifted her right arm up to look at her wrist, she touched the device on her arm with the other and, and a light blared up. "This is Bernadette. I've cleaned up the History and Artifacts wing. I also found the boy." She said in a stoic voice.

"Good." A voice that sounded like Fay's said, "Bring him to sub-control 14a."

"Understood." She looked at the boy. "Come with me kid." She walked over to him, and pulled him to his feet. After she made sure he wasn't hurt, she turned around. "Follow me." And started walking off.

After what seemed like an hour of walking, they arrived at what appeared to be a control room of sorts. The room was large; it most likely had to be because the boy noted an incredibly large amount of the floating machines flying around between the doorways high up on the wall. Some were hovering in front of computers stationed around the room, digesting the data on the screen then flying off to complete some unknown task. There were monitors all over the place, some showing scenes of empty hallways, others showing the Guardians fighting off more of the giant lizards. Fay was sitting in front of a panel filled with buttons and knobs observing the scenes with a calculating gaze.

The woman known as Bernadette spoke up, causing Fay's attention to turn to them. "I've brought the boy, he seems fine for the most part. A few scrapes here and there but nothing too serious.

"Thank you, Bernadette. I'll take him from here. Go assist the others."

"Yes, Lady Fay." She bowed and ran into the hall, where she disappeared from view.

Fay walked up to him, and then punched him in the head. "What were you thinking, running after me when I told you to stay put!?" She almost yelled at him.

"But, the door opened up, and I was pushed out into the hall!" He countered.

Fay deadpanned. "Monome. I should've known."

"Monome? Why would she do something like that?" the boy asked, obviously confused.

Fay sighed, "Never mind that now. I saw what you did back there, to think you would be able to summon your powers at all after just having them unlocked is incredible. I bet you're pretty tired right now though, aren't you?" She finished, waving her hand in front of his face.

The boy blinked, and suddenly felt his eyelids get heavy, and felt his limbs start shaking. He fell backwards onto his butt and held a hand to his head trying to clear the dizziness. He heard Fay's voice once more, but it sounded distorted to his exhausted mind "_Out running a Wyrm and using your powers so quickly after you just woke up from a month long coma. Looks like you really are one of us, but unfortunately you are still just a kid and after this you need your rest. So sleep, and when you wake up your training can begin._" His eyelids snapped shut and he fell onto his back, the sounds of soft breathing coming from the bandages still around his head.

Fay smiled as she beckoned a large four armed version of the floating machines over to her. "Take him to his new room and make sure he isn't disturbed. He needs his rest right now." The machine answered with a series of pings that must have meant 'affirmative' because it picked up the boy before flying out of the room and down the hall.

She turned her attention back to the monitors and found that most of the Wryms had been taken care of and the rest were being contained by more of the floating machines and herded back to their pen.

She held up her left arm and began turning dials on the device attached to her wrist, prompting the same sphere of light as before to appear. "Alright Guardians, it looks like most of the Wryms have been taken care of, and the rest are being herded back to their pen by the security drones. Meet me in sub-control room 14a. We need to have a team meeting concerning today's peculiar turn of events." She spoke into the sphere, a chorus of "Yes, Ma'ams" filled the air. She sat back down in her chair and began watching the monitors once more, making sure that no other creatures escaped their notice.

A few minutes later, twelve people filed into the room and gave a quick salute before one of them, bearing a roman numeral for seven, spoke up. "So what's going on boss?"

Fay swiveled her chair around to face her teammates/subordinates. "We have a couple of things we need to discuss, not the least of which is the seven-year old one I'm sure you're all wondering about."

This time the one bearing the Number four spoke, "Yeah, that kid. We know he's an apprentice, and we also know that he is the only survivor of some sort of plague or war out of his entire world. He's been in a coma for the past month."

Fay nodded "He woke up today." she stated simply. As she watched her comrades she saw no movements that indicated surprise or shock, save for subtle movements of some heads to a position that showed them to be paying more attention. "I brought him to Monome and she revealed that he is to be my apprentice." Now THAT got their undivided attention. Some tensed up, and a few sharp intakes of breath were heard.

Number seven spoke up again stuttering "B-But how...how is that possible. If that's true then he's the first apprentice we've found. What happened to the other twelve?"

Fay shook her head "I don't know, maybe because his life was in danger that we found him first, maybe it was something else. The point is he's here now and when he wakes up I plan on beginning his training."

"Where is the boy now?" Bernadette asked.

"He is currently sleeping in what is now his room." One of the screens changed to a scene featuring the current focus of the conversation sleeping peacefully in a rather bland room. "I had to work a little magic on him to knock him out so he didn't overstress his new powers. He was actually able to call upon them not minutes after having them unlocked in order to stall a wyrm that was chasing him."

"Impressive..." noted Bernadette. "To call upon his powers with no training, even if it was subconscious in execution, is no small feat."

"I know." said Fay with a small amount of pride and a small smile. "The fact that he also accepted everything Monome and I told him without questioning his own sanity was quite open-minded of him. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to his training. He already shows some of the qualities of a great Guardian."

There were murmurs of assent, and nodding of heads. "Now on to our second piece of business, we need to address how exactly the Wyrms got out of containment." Fay adopted a very serious look in her eyes as she changed the topic.

"I believe I have an answer for that." A new voice chimed in, however it did not come from any of the people standing in the room, it was a flat voice that held little emotion. Suddenly a circular area on the control panel lit up and suddenly there was the visage of a man, no more than eight inches tall standing there. However, this was no ordinary man his body was was translucent and had random ones and zeroes crisscrossing it. He had a thin figure, there was little actual muscle on his 'limbs' and his face was regal, eyes displaying much seriousness.

"Chronos, what do you mean?" Fay asked curiously.

"As most of you already know, the pen in particular that houses the Wyrms had the security fence, and turrents deactivated for maintenance. The Wyrms, despite their intelligence, must have sensed an vulnerability in the pen and took advantage of the situation to escape."

"What happened to what security was left activated? It should have been enough to stop this before it got out of hand!" Number four almost shouted.

"Unfortunately, it would seem that the backup security detail was also deactivated. Precisely 5 minutes before the creatures escaped someone overrode the system controlling backup security, and forced offline. The problem has been rectified, but I am afraid that I was unable to find the one responsible." Chronos said.

"What? How is that possible? The only people with access to those codes are us, and none of us would have...ever...done this," Fay slowed her speech to a crawl as a revelation struck her. "Monome." She ground out.

"What does Monome have to do with this?" Number seven queried.

"Before I made him fall asleep, the boy mentioned that after I left to deal with the wyrm situation the door to the hall outside Monome's room opened and he was pushed out by an unknown force." Fay explained.

"So?" Number seven motioned for her to continue.

"So, I have a feeling that she set all this up for some reason." Fay finished. Not a moment later giggling was heard from above them.

They turned their heads upwards and saw the little blue semi-goddess smiling down on them.

"Yup. You guessed it!" She chirped.

"Would you mind telling us why you set loose dangerous creatures in our home?" Bernadette asked the blue sprite.

"Well that's easy. It was getting too quiet and I wanted to have some fun. Plus, it also helped him..." she pointed at the screen showing the boy's sleeping form, "...jump start his powers. So it wasn't all bad."

Cue thirteen simultaneous face faults.

Fay was the first to get up "You did this all for a laugh!?" It was more a statement than an actual question but Monome answered anyway.

"Sure did! It was fun, I got to ride on one of the lizards until Mr. meanie over there..." Monome glared at number five, who sweat dropped and held up his hands in a defensive manner "...killed it and ruined my ride."

"Well that's all well and good, but I'm afraid you can't just let wild creatures run loose in our home. They could really cause some serious damage" Fay scolded.

Monome pouted and stuck her tongue out at the group. This caused Bernadette to loose a small jet of flame at her, which she dodged and afterwords promptly disappeared. The group of thirteen stared on for a moment before a cough brought their attention back to their leader.

Fay had an annoyed look on her face as she spoke "Okay, since that's about it you're all dismissed, go get some rest, it's been an interesting day."

The group filed out of the room leaving only Fay and Bernadette behind. Bernadette walked over to Fay's side. Both of them staring at monitor displaying the newest arrival to the castle still sleeping peacefully.

"Is something the matter?" Fay asked her teammate and friend.

"The boy is truly an impressive prospect." Bernadette replied.

"That he is, I can't wait to see what he can do with that power when he gets older." Fay said with enthusiasm.

"Soooo...what really happened to him on his homeworld?" Bernadette asked.

Fay's eyes widened, then she closed them and smiled, turning to Bernadette. "Nothing gets by you does it...onee-chan."

"You were never a very good liar imouto. I could tell from the beginning you weren't telling the whole truth about his origins. So what's up?" Bernadette said while taking off her own hood, revealing long brown hair that went down to her back, with piercing green eyes. She turned her attention to Fay.

"His world wasn't destroyed by a plague or a war...at least not a war amongst themselves." Bernadette raised an eyebrow at this. "The Knights sacked the entire planet, somehow missing him." Fay explained with a somber tone.

"Why didn't you tell us, or him?" Bernadette asked her sister, pointing at the boy.

"The boy can't remember anything from before he woke up earlier today. His past is a mystery to him, he can't even remember his own name, what good would it be telling him that his home is gone?" Fay said forcefully.

Before her sister could speak again she continued "Besides, if I had told him it could have lead to a need for vengeance, and we all know what would most likely happen in that case."

Bernadette nodded. "True, but you will have to tell him sooner or later."

Fay nodded as well. "I know, but not now. I'll tell him when he'll be able to deal with it better. Hopefully whatever need for retribution he ends up cultivating won't consume him."

"Do you know why the Knights destroyed his home?"

"They're the Knights of Verum-I. They don't **need** a reason to do anything, but most likely they saw the boy's people as threats to them somehow." Fay shrugged "Whatever the case was, they moved in with ruthless efficiency and killed off most of the worlds populace before they could form any kind of defense. _Monsters!_" She spat the last word with as much venom as she could.

"That boy is in for a very interesting life, don't you think imouto?" Bernadette said as she turned her attention back to the screen, her lips forming a smirk.

"I don't doubt it onee-chan. I don't doubt it." Fay said, mirroring her sister's smirk.

On screen, the boy slumbered on. Unaware that he was going to be woken up by Fay flipping him out of his nice, cozy bed only to start him on the training regimen from hell.

---end chapter---

Dreadman75: And that's chapter 2 ladies and gentlemen. At this point I must apologize to our readers, I said that we would try and get this done before March was out and here it is at the beginning of May. The only excuse I can give is that this chapter went through a LONG revision process so we could weed out any mistakes. That being said, I hope you will all read and review. We'll feel more inclined to work harder if people show their interest in the fic.

Snipa: Besides, it's not like many of you are reading this until long after the more popular arcs will come out, so there's really no reason to worry about you guys yet. For those of you reading before any of the major arcs come out, we congratulate you for even finding this story. For those of you reading this because it's a prerequisite to the other arcs, then you only have one more chapter to go! Okay, I lied, you have this, and then the next arc after this one before it gets any real popularity. Then again, we don't know how popular the series that will be used in the next arc is. So it's really up in the air.

I also want to note our awesome beta, KokiriLink. The guy is very good at finding mistakes. Link, anything you want to say?

KokiriLink: I myself am impressed at the improvement of the story from it's previous form. Before, this fic was good, but the two authors have totally cranked it up a notch, and put a whole bunch more thought into this. I can't help but feel a sense of pride in being apart of this epic cross-over fan-fic.

One more step closer to global domination... heh heh- *cough* Pardon. Forgot my meds this morning.

But yeah, in all seriousness, I'm incredibly surprised with the improvement, and you should be too. So much so, that you are inspired enough to leave a review. Don't be afraid to simply press the little green, rectangular button below, scrawl a few words of praise for these two excellent authors. Go on, feed their egos; it's fun deflating them. (Less-than-three) XP


End file.
